Video game murder has no value anymore

[beniki]

I had thought of this around the time I was playing Assassins Creed 2 when I was trying to figure out why I was so bored of it. Ezio can kill so many people so fast that the whole murder thing doesn't phase him anymore, hell it didn't look like it ever phased him or even me. It's like you can't have a kill be meaningful unless it has an overdramatic animation or if it's some sort of big boss. What about the fifty guys you killed just to get to him?

The last time I killed a common nameless enemy and it really hit me that I had murdered someone was the beginning of Half Life 2. After nearly 30 minutes of buildup, running away and getting beaten by police, that I finally confronted one in an ally and beat him to death with a crowbar. This whole time the game has been encouraging you to run away even when you did get the crowbar, but this time I confronted and killed him.

So when was the last time you felt an impact by murdering a nameless character in a game?

Bioshock actually. Really didn't like that game. All the mobs are really just sick people, and the game gives you no choice, but to kill them. Sure, they're all psychotic killers, but it's kind of like setting fire to a lunatic asylum.

... of course that feeling was largely over ridden by the annoyance about dealing with the fiftieth damn wave of damn monster, using up all my damn ammo, interrupting my happy rifling through bins for glue and duct tape.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Did you ever think about your actions as Mario, slaughtering innocent goons who only need to stop you or get tossed into the lava by their boss for incompetence? I didn't and I'm sure there are Koopa widows out there cursing my name.

[sub]I've been desensitized to game murder for a long time. Making murder important to future events in the game would make me less quick to pull the knife/gun on someone in my way.[/sub]

 

[Brainpaint]

Correction: Murder in the media in GENERAL has no value anymore. There are very few action/horror movies in which the death count can be accurately recalled without looking it up.
Why is it that we can have murder in G rated movies/games, on daytime TV shows and even base entire comedy movie plots on murder? Why do we consider rape in a movie worse than death? Surely to end a life altogether is worse, right?
We're conditioned from a young age that fictional adult male death is fine but why is fictional female/child death considered bad and so many protests are made when they are depicted in films and games? So many questions!

 

[JesterRaiin]

So when was the last time you felt an impact by murdering a nameless character in a game?

DX:HR.

Spoiler

Near the end Adam is attacked by countless waves of driven mad crew of arctic station. They are almost exact copies of a few models but i didn't feel ok with murdering them - they were unwilling victims of grander scheme. Had to replay this section. :|

 

[MorsePacific]

No, I have never been affected by killing a nameless enemy in a video game.

The reason for this is quite simple: I was never given any reason to think of them as an actual person. They're just obstacles to the next part of my quest. If I heard them scream something like "BUT MY FAMILY" instead of "ARGHHHH" when I stab them in the face, I'd be much less likely to just kill them.

So yes, murder in video games has no value. Unless developers start giving every NPC in the game a full name and backstory, it never will.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

It's called De-sensitization. Our race has been going through it for a rather long period of time.

Yeah, I got nothin'. I'm hungry.

 

[mjc0961]

It never had any value in the first place because it's just a game. People who think you get "desensitized" to it are just silly. It is a game, and that is not a person, it's a bunch of polygons and some code. In fact, anyone who would get all teary-eyed and sad over a murder in a game is probably a bit too emotional. Unless the character was an important one that a game spent a lot of time building up, it's perfectly okay to not care at all if some random NPC dies.

 

[esperandote]

Manhunt 2, the kills are somewhat impressing but you get used to it too.

 

[plugav]

Condemned: Criminal Origins makes you beat homeless junkies to death with a lead pipe - that really messed with my head.

 

[Yopaz]

I guess the kills in Rage get a little impact on me because they are just really well animated. They actually look like they're feeling pain when I plant a bullet in their kneecaps and that gets to me, yet I find it kinda amusing and will aim for the knee caps because of that. With the double barreled shotgun...

 

[krazykidd]

I had thought of this around the time I was playing Assassins Creed 2 when I was trying to figure out why I was so bored of it. Ezio can kill so many people so fast that the whole murder thing doesn't phase him anymore, hell it didn't look like it ever phased him or even me. It's like you can't have a kill be meaningful unless it has an overdramatic animation or if it's some sort of big boss. What about the fifty guys you killed just to get to him?

The last time I killed a common nameless enemy and it really hit me that I had murdered someone was the beginning of Half Life 2. After nearly 30 minutes of buildup, running away and getting beaten by police, that I finally confronted one in an ally and beat him to death with a crowbar. This whole time the game has been encouraging you to run away even when you did get the crowbar, but this time I confronted and killed him.

So when was the last time you felt an impact by murdering a nameless character in a game?

May i ask when did it have value? I mean they are just games , it's not real people and they are argubly there to BE murdered. I mean should i feel bad about pixels when i can't feel bad about murder in real life( unless it's an extreme case )?

Anyways my answer is i never felt bad about killing anyone in my games , i do get angry when my characters in jrPgs get killed in the story, like when aeris got killed by sephiroth , i mean i spent so muh time leveling her :/.

 

[blindthrall]

Probably in Fallout: NV, because of the dismemberment. I was having a conversation with the guy minutes ago and now he's a pile of chopped meat.

Yeah, I felt bad shooting some of the Fiends. Or anytime I offed an NPC soldier because their asshole COs told them to shoot at me for going along with their expansionist bullshit.

 

[Henke]

The only time I ever felt bad about killing something in a game is if I have to kill pet type animals. Cats and dogs get at me. Then again I usually feel worse about seeing a dead animal then a dead person. Somewhat odd with me living on a farm and all.

Same here. Killing innocent (cute) animals feels kinda wrong; killing passing-by NPCs doesn't affect me. Why? Because thats what NPCs are for besides giving you quests to fulfill. In a game where I can't kill any friendly NPCs the designers are taking the chance away to do immoral things. And we all want to do immoral things because its only a game!

 

[lionsprey]

A few of the brutal melee kills in killzone 3 got to me when i started playing it

 

[shadyh8er]

One time when I was playing Infamous I audibly apologized to a pedestrian whom I leeched for health. I was going the Good route too.

 

[Anthony Wells]

Correction: Murder in the media in GENERAL has no value anymore. There are very few action/horror movies in which the death count can be accurately recalled without looking it up.
Why is it that we can have murder in G rated movies/games, on daytime TV shows and even base entire comedy movie plots on murder? Why do we consider rape in a movie worse than death? Surely to end a life altogether is worse, right?
We're conditioned from a young age that fictional adult male death is fine but why is fictional female/child death considered bad and so many protests are made when they are depicted in films and games? So many questions!

ok yes you have valid points excpet the rape thing...the trauma of rape and having to live with it FAR outwieghs dying...for that person...other poepl may be affected by death more but rape effects the victim far more than death would. but i do generally feel worse off when a female dies rather than a male....the same with a child it feels more impactiful when they die than when an adult male dies...i dont know why it just does..

 

[midknight129]

Does it count if I play a game where I can name my characters, and I name one of them "Nameless" and brutally assault them?

 

[GiglameshSoulEater]

I ound it hilarious Alpha Protocol had a record of how many orphans you'dmade. By the end of the game it was in the thousands.